Our Mortgage Rate Competition indexes for both refinance and purchase jumped higher, mirroring the move to a seven-year high in mortgage interest rates. The increase in rates is a little surprising in that it lacked the traditional catalysts for such a significant move. The most recent inflation and wage data were moderate, and these measures have a close relationship with and influence upon nominal interest rates.
The non-inflation part of rates reflects supply and demand for government borrowing. Longer term, the government deficit will place substantial upward pressure on U.S. rates. The mitigating factor in recent years has been the even lower rates in other major global interest markets, the EU and Japan, anchoring U.S. rates. If foreign demand for U.S. debt declines, rates will move higher as supply rises with government borrowing. Another source of weakening demand is U.S. corporations selling Treasuries in the wake of recent tax reforms. Changes to the treatment of foreign earnings have led companies to reduce their cash balances, which were most commonly held in Treasuries. This selling is pushing rates up.
There are many reasons why consumers spend so little time shopping for mortgages, however, at LendingTree we believe one is that the mortgage industry has not done a great job of informing consumers on the amount of savings available and the ease with which savings can be accessed.
That is why we introduced the LendingTree Mortgage Savings Tracker. Built on top of our proprietary Mortgage Rate Competition Index, the Mortgage Savings Tracker brings a new transparency to mortgage shopping by highlighting the significant savings that are available to potential borrowers for both purchase mortgages and refinancing. For more details on the index, follow the link below.
Released each month, The LendingTree Mortgage Offers Report contains data from actual loan terms offered to borrowers on LendingTree.com by lenders. Stay up to date with the most recent LendingTree Mortgage Offers Reports below:
April 2018 Report
March 2018 Report
February 2018 Report
January 2018 Report
December 2017 Report
November 2017 Report
October 2017 Report
Mortgage rates can vary a lot between lenders on any given day. So, if you only get one mortgage quote, you won’t have any idea if there’s a better deal out there. That’s why the best way to get a mortgage rate it to request quotes from multiple lenders and compare interest rates, loan terms and closing costs. It puts you on in charge and keeps the banks competing to get you the best rate possible. Remember, even .1 percent can amount to thousands of dollars over the course of a loan. Make sure you shop around!
